Literature has cognitive function, which can help people understand life and gain insight into it. Literature has an educational function, which can enlighten people's thoughts and cultivate noble sentiments. Literature also has entertainment function, which can make people rest and entertain themselves. However, people create and read literary works not only for these reasons, but also for a very important aspect, that is, creating beauty, appreciating beauty and enjoying beauty. For example, "Peach blossoms bloom without owners, lovely crimson loves pale red" and "helpless flowers fall, deja vu returns" give us beauty, doesn't it?
So, where is the beauty of literature?
The first is the beauty of language. Literature is the art of language. The language of excellent literary works is not only accurate and vivid, but also contributes to the standardization of national language and can express beauty. The beauty of literature is mainly expressed by shaping artistic images through language. For an excellent writer, nothing can't be expressed in words. Literary description is not limited by time and space. Millennium, Wan Li, ups and downs, ups and downs, joys and sorrows, can be depicted with vivid pictures and presented to readers. "The language is not amazing!" The beauty of language is deliberately pursued by writers. "Spring breeze is green in Jiang Nanan". Can you change the word "green"?
Different sentences show different momentum and styles. When unrestrained, "swallowing Wan Li like a tiger", when graceful and restrained, "Yang Liuan Xiaofeng is dying"; Rich and beautiful, such as "Jade Building in the Nest", indifferent, "leisurely seeing Nanshan", it is sometimes hazy, like smoke and fog, like Shuting, like North Island; Sometimes it is as clear and profound as a knife, such as Lao She and Lu Xun. "History is beyond words", which can summarize the world macroscopically; "Young leaves discuss in detail" can also be described in detail. "people
What should I do with my face today? I wrote an unspeakable "regret" and "A river flowing eastward" showed an invisible "worry". The sonorous sound played by pipa is simply a musical sculpture, which has set an example for all generations! Language master refers to turning the stone into gold, which makes ordinary liberal arts students have magical effects, lasting forever and beautiful.
Second, the plot is beautiful. The beauty of the plot is that the story is lively and interesting. Storytelling is a writer's specialty. Zhao Shuli said that writing a novel is telling a story. A story is made up of plots. The beauty of the story comes from the beauty of the plot. Engels greatly appreciated the vividness and richness of Shakespeare's drama plots, and believed that greater ideological depth and realized historical content could only be expressed through vivid and rich plots.
The beauty of the plot mainly lies in the concrete description of life and the tense contradictions and conflicts. The truth of the details makes people seem to see that person and hear his voice, as if they were there. Contradictions come and go, and the story twists and turns, which can be fascinating. Plot is the process of characters' activities and the history of their growth. The influence of personality and environment determines the fate of the characters. The fate of the characters is the soul of the story. People listen to stories, mainly concerned about the fate of the characters. Once the story begins, throw the fate of the character to the reader, so that you can no longer share the joys and sorrows with him, concentrate on turning over the works page by page until the final ending. We are dizzy with lights, smelling ink, visiting the changing history, tasting the ups and downs of life and spending our time happily. Literature is the art of imagination. Literature can be fiction. Imagination and fiction can make up for some missing links in the writer's life chain, freely gallop his thoughts and realize his aesthetic pursuit, thus weaving the plot more colorful and making the story more vivid and charming. Clever suspense is an important magic weapon for literature to conquer readers. The use of various techniques, such as arranging clouds to support the moon, spreading doubts, misunderstanding coincidences, and making the finishing point, aroused readers' strong psychological pursuit and made the plot produce wonderful structural effects.
The third is the beauty of human nature and human feelings. Literature reflects real life and expresses thoughts and feelings by shaping artistic images. The most colorful and unforgettable literary images are vivid characters. Novels from the Renaissance to the19th century, from the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as well as the works of outstanding writers in modern times, are widely loved and respected, not only because they vividly depict colorful society and thrilling scenes, but also because they create many characters with distinctive characteristics of the times. In the colorful character gallery, some are brave as tigers, some are honest as cows, some are extremely clever, some are stubborn as stones, some are open as the sun, and some are sinister as wolves. From them, we can feel what is great and noble, what is small and despicable, and what is beautiful and magical. It tells us how to love, respect and understand people, how to hate, identify and spit on those ugly things. What is particularly commendable is that literature can directly, meticulously and profoundly describe people's inner activities, show people's spiritual world, and make readers admire the profound mysteries and fascinating secrets of the world.
Literature can not give people rank and title, nor can it give people money, but it is wealth and immortal spiritual wealth of mankind. Literature can't take the place of power and law to manage and punish people, but in any case, it can examine the places beyond the control of power and law, and reward, criticize and judge people's souls with the authority of art. The beauty of human feelings and humanity in literature is a kind of strength, a kind of moral shock and emotional encouragement, which can influence people, unconsciously urge them to regulate themselves, and even make people realize and connect.
Writers have also described ugly human nature with pen and ink. But writing ugliness is not the purpose. Writing ugliness is to set off light with darkness and beauty with ugliness. Writing ugliness is to deny ugliness, turn ugliness into beauty, and make beautiful human nature better.
The fourth is wisdom and beauty. Literature does not directly and specifically describe the production process, does not teach people how to cut mountains, shoot guns and build bridges when encountering water, and does not teach people how to farm land and build houses to do business, but it does not mean that literature cannot increase people's wisdom and does not have wisdom beauty. Literature is an art that takes people as the center and describes the whole life. Literature is an encyclopedia, and excellent literary works are textbooks of life. You can learn a lot from literature that ordinary books can't. Literature introduces history by telling stories, summarizes lessons, and makes people increase their knowledge, get enlightenment and gradually become smart. Aren't the defeat in Li Zicheng, the vicissitudes of the century in Bailuyuan and the hunger and cold in Zhang Xianliang profound lessons? Zhuge Liang's strategizing and the Monkey King's great wisdom and courage are magnificent.
There are so many clever and wise poems and outstanding figures in the garden. Isn't it a flash of human wisdom? In fact, beautiful literary language and successful artistic image are the crystallization of human wisdom. When we read all kinds of literary works, we are appreciating the beauty of the writer's wisdom.
At the end of the 20th century, the situation of literature changed greatly, and it was unconventional and bizarre, so it was difficult to interpret it with traditional concepts. Change is common sense. It is not terrible, but literature cannot be without beauty. True literature must coexist with beauty. Venus, a literary figure who is about to enter the new century, believes that she will not become uglier, but will only become more beautiful, newer and more lovely.
See Liang's Beauty of Literature, Journal of Guizhou Normal University (Social Science Edition), No.2, 1999.
Literature is the study of beauty.
Abstract: Gorky's proposition that "literature is human science" is still a proposition with strong vitality. However, because it seriously ignores literature as a special way to reflect the beauty of social life, it has great theoretical defects, which is not conducive to this proposition to play a huge social role. Literature is not so much a study of people as a study of beauty. The main reasons are as follows: first, literature is about people, a poetic social life centered on people, and a beautiful light of human nature lit by "God" in people's hearts. Second, literary creation itself, as a kind of beautiful creation, is for human beings-the lofty mission of literature is to alleviate the spiritual pain of human beings. Thirdly, it is impossible for philosophy, social science and all natural sciences to explore and solve the life problems and puzzles faced by all mankind, and it is also for people. "Literature is the noblest flower of human civilization." The basic theme of all literary forms, ancient and modern, at home and abroad, is how to guide mankind towards true happiness.
Keywords: literature; The study of beauty; The soul of literature
What is literature? This is the core problem of literary theory, and it is also a constant and difficult problem that countless theorists at home and abroad have often said for thousands of years. Different answers to this question are directly related to the nature and fate of their respective literary theory buildings. From Plato and Aristotle to Kant, Hegel, Freud and Sartre, from Muny in Yarlung Zangbo River to Hsinchu, Cai Sheng and Pishou Nath, to Tagore and Pliem Chang, from Confucius and Laozi to Liu Xie and Si Kongtu, to Lu Xun and Guo Moruo, some truth particles have been revealed, but it cannot be said that they have been solved well. Plato said that literature is the ecstasy of inspiration and the shining of thought, Aristotle said that literature is a beautiful imitation of life, Kant said that literature is the creation of genius, Hegel said that beauty is the perceptual manifestation of thought, literature is the flame of thought, Wilde said that literature is a beautiful lie, Masaaki Shirakawa said that literature is a symbol of depression, Freud said that literature is the artistic realization of human desire, and Jacobson said that literature is the beautiful operation of language. [1]( 1 19) Bospirov said that the essence of literature is ideology, [2](P676) Wellek and Warren said that literature is a multilayer structure of symbols and meanings. [3] Bosborov discovered the social essence of literature by relying on literature as the essence of ideology. Wellek and Warren discovered the essence of literature as a medium-the art of language, relying on literature as a multi-layer structure of symbols and meanings. Relying on the three-dimensional meaning space supported by the fuzziness and ambiguity of language, they found the empty structure of their works and easily exposed the ancient mysteries of literary masterpieces. Belinsky relies on the difference between literature and philosophy and social sciences to reflect the basic form of social life-literature reflects social life with images, thus revealing the aesthetic characteristics of literature. Under the guidance of Marxist theory, in view of the above exploration, China's theoretical circles simply define literature as "literature is a special consciousness that uses language to shape images and reflect social life."
Form ". In recent 20 years, with the deepening of theoretical research, literature has been further defined as "the art of language structure", the aesthetic essence of literature is "aesthetic reflection, aesthetic expression and aesthetic creation of social life with images", and the social essence of literature is "a special social ideology with great poetry". Although the problem is basically solved by metaphysics, the humanistic characteristics and ontological grasp of metaphysics are seriously ignored. Although some people shouted several times, many people grasped one point and ignored the rest, eager to criticize and deny, which made literature lose its soul. However, no matter how different the above viewpoints are, as long as we change the observation angle from metaphysics to metaphysics in time, it is not difficult to find that they all notice that the essence of literature cannot be separated from people to varying degrees. Talent is the core factor of literature. Yes! The core of the artistic image system that literature reflects social life is people. As the creator of language art, literature is human, and the object of literary aesthetic entertainment is also human. Everything in the world cares about people, and everything is for people [4]. "How wonderful it is to feel like a person ..." [4] Praise is also a person. Therefore, Gorky said: "Literature is a human study" should be said to be a perfect summary of the metaphysical essence of literature from ancient times to the present. It can be predicted that people will have strong vitality in a long historical period before they really enter the realm of truth, goodness and beauty. It's just that this proposition seriously ignores the way literature reflects the beauty of social life and has great defects. As a scientific concept in people's minds, it has not really been established, which has caused endless debates in academic circles.
Qian Gurong's "literature is the theory of human studies" has not been able to jump out of this theoretical model after expounding Gorky and others' views in depth. If "literature is the knowledge of beauty", it may be more in line with Gorky's original meaning and more conducive to the great social role of this proposition.
Why do you say that? First of all, literature is about people, and it is about people-centered and poetic social life. Literature is about the relationship between man and nature, man and society, man and himself, and man and himself. It is also about a certain noble or not noble deep state of mind shown by the organic unity of a person's internal and external overall image, unless one day literature goes to real extinction with the perfect realization of human nature. As an organic part of human nature, the natural attribute of human beings is of course an important aspect on which literature depends, but the social attribute of human beings as the sum of social relations is the focus of literature. Without this particular social network, no one can survive. People are born with father-son relationship, mother-daughter relationship and brother-sister relationship; As soon as I go to school, I have a classmate relationship and a teacher-student relationship; When you grow up, it is a lover relationship when you are in love, and a husband-wife relationship, an extramarital affair and a lover relationship when you get married; If you take part in the work, you will have the relationship between colleagues and superiors and subordinates; When you arrive at the diplomatic negotiation table and start negotiations with foreigners, you will have diplomatic relations; In a class society, people still have class relations. Only in certain historical periods when the class struggle is extremely acute, the above relationship will be covered with a strong class color. More often, "class relationship" is only an organic aspect of many aspects of human nature, and it must not be generalized. People have always been the sum total of this social relationship. When writers creatively explain these complex social relations in their works, the basic content of literary works is formed. The creative combing and weaving of this complex relationship with one or several protagonists as the core, that is, the excavation of a series of rich poems and beauty contained in the relationship between man and nature, man and society, and man and himself, is an outstanding discovery of this unique poem and beauty. This is where writers are better than ordinary people. Therefore, in this sense, literature is just a beautiful light of human nature lit by "God" in people's hearts, which is very different from other philosophical and social sciences aimed at examining one or more aspects of people-centered social life.
Secondly, literary creation, as a kind of beautiful creation, is for human beings-the lofty mission of literature is to alleviate the spiritual pain of human beings. The cognitive function of literature helps to eliminate people's ignorance and misunderstanding of people and things, so as to alleviate people's mental pain. The educational function of literature is helpful to improve people's ideological level, moral level and character level, effectively adjust and overcome the sharp opposition and contradiction between man and nature, society and man and himself, and constantly improve the harmony between man and the surrounding world and between man and himself. By strengthening people's sense of social justice, social realism, social honor and disgrace, social conscience, social responsibility and social morality, we can constantly stimulate the positive aspects of human nature, guide people to the realm of perfection, and let everyone live as happily and honestly as possible, which is also to alleviate the mental pain of human beings. The aesthetic entertainment function of literature is helpful to enrich and perfect human nature, help people to eliminate mental depression, release excess physiological energy, restore psychological balance, purify and sublimate the mind, meet psychological needs, further enhance and regulate physical and mental health, and more importantly, relieve people's mental pain. No wonder Sartre, the master of existentialism philosophy, regards such a magician who plays with words in literary creation as a saint to save mankind. It is through this desperate struggle between the saints and the devil every night that human beings who can't stand the temptation can maintain the warmth and happiness of life day after day, maintain the spirit and joy of life, and not go astray and go to destruction. In this sense, all scholars in philosophy, social science and natural science who are engaged in cultural transformation are saints to save mankind. Because all philosophy and social sciences are also aimed at alleviating people.
The mental pain of class. Of course, natural science mainly appeals to people's material world.
However, why people eat well, dress well and play well is ultimately for spiritual pleasure. The only difference is that literature and other arts have played a more direct and significant role in alleviating human mental pain.
Third, literature explores and solves life problems and puzzles that all philosophy, social sciences and all natural sciences can't solve well, and it is also for people. It never shows politics, ethics, moralism, religion, existing political and legal systems and economic systems.
To solve or be able to solve problems, the key point is often the "lost thinking" that all philosophy and social sciences can't solve well. It is often a question of life and death, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, love and hate, crime and punishment with eternal significance. At the same time, it is also a problem that any excellent political party, government and politician can only partially solve but cannot fundamentally solve. For example, the emotional problems between men and women, from ancient group marriage and consanguinity to later pairing marriage, polygamy, polyandry and even today's monogamy, can hardly be said to have been satisfactorily solved. Including many outstanding politicians, are bound to make mistakes in their lives. So this life problem was handed over to the literary generation to explore. It seems that people have never stopped exploring this aspect, from the secret love in The Pigeon, to the resentment of the abandoned wife to her lover in Meng, to the heartbreaking tragedy of Baodai in A Dream of Red Mansions, from Medea to The Scarlet Letter and Anna, to Lady Chatterley's Lover and The Hamilton Woman. And I'm afraid I will continue to explore for thousands of years or even longer. Another example is the exploration of life and death, which began as early as 3,000 years ago in the ancient Babylonian epic forgotten one, and The Journey to the West is the master of this artistic exploration. It is also by the persistent exploration and varying degrees of solutions to these life problems and puzzles that the history of literature has produced Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Cao Xueqin, as well as hundreds of Nobel Prize in Literature winners. Goethe said that "perfection is the realm of God". If people really want to be true, kind and beautiful, they must constantly overcome the problems and puzzles in life, constantly alienate mediocrity, approach Excellence and overcome their own limitations. When philosophy, social science and all natural sciences are powerless, it is often literature that stretches out its powerful arm, soothes people's painful souls, heals their wounds, and leads people to the ultimate realm of truth, goodness and beauty of human nature. It is in this sense that Prudhomme, the first French poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in this century, said that "literature is the noblest flower of human civilization". [5] Therefore, no matter what kind of artistic form and beautiful way is used in literature with the lofty mission of alleviating human spiritual suffering, all literary works at all times and in all countries have an eternal motif, that is, how to guide mankind to real happiness.
In a word, the metaphysical definition of "literature" is certainly helpful for people to accurately grasp the essence of literature from the theoretical level, while the metaphysical definition of "literature" is closer to the deep meaning of literature and can reveal its vitality in the original sense. Therefore, neither the former can be used to deny the latter for no reason, nor can the latter be used to exclude the former for no reason, and neither can be neglected. I think literature is a special social ideology that uses language to create images to reflect social life, and it is also a kind of dynamic, lofty and unparalleled beauty knowledge. Literature is not so much a study of human nature as a study of beauty. If the metaphysical definition well determines the media essence, social essence and aesthetic essence of literature, then the metaphysical definition of "literature is the knowledge of beauty" well reveals the deep humanistic characteristics or essence of literature. "Literature is the noblest flower of human civilization" reveals the cultural essence of literature in the sense of cultural anthropology. Only when the essence of metaphysics and metaphysics is highly unified can we understand "what is literature?" The answer can be complete. Only the "humanistic essence" of literature is closest to the deep level of literature. In short, the so-called literature is nothing more than the art and aesthetics of using language to create images in social life to reflect, express and create aesthetics. It is a special social ideology and the noblest cultural existence with great poetry.
Literature is not only a social phenomenon in the epistemological sense, but also a life phenomenon, language phenomenon, aesthetic phenomenon and cultural phenomenon, but in the final analysis, it is mainly a life phenomenon. It has not only social ontology, but also obvious life ontology, language ontology, aesthetic ontology and cultural ontology. The essence of literature at any level is often based on the corresponding literary ontology. As an aesthetic, literature embodies the basic connotation of this life phenomenon. The development of literature can never be separated from the endless fuel and power of beauty provided by "literature as a phenomenon of life". Therefore, the metaphysical nature of the deep humanistic essence of literature is the soul on which its various layers of essence depend. Besides, any metaphysical definition, no matter how mysterious and fashionable, is pale and lifeless. This is also the fundamental drawback of the discussion on the nature of literature in China's theoretical circles.
[References]
Su Yongxu, Literature is a Beautiful Humanity, Journal of Henan Institute of Education (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), No.4, 200 1.
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